About SIMCON

What is SIMCON?

SIMCON is an annual games convention sponsored by the University of Rochester Simulation Gaming Association (URSGA). Held every March on the University's River Campus, the SIMCON conventions have, for the past twenty-nine years, provided a meeting-place where gameplayers from the Rochester area, the surrounding multistate region, and beyond (including attendees from as far away as California) can learn from each other and from experts in the field, exchange ideas, and test their skills against those of their peers in friendly competition.

Each SIMCON is a four-day conference filled with tournaments, games, game demonstrations, and other events, including:

• The Merchants' Bazaar, a marketplace of games, accessories, and other interesting goods for our attendees' perusal
• The Anime Room, showing a wide selection of Japanese animation throughout the convention
• The All-Nighters -- On both Friday and Saturday night, events continue around the clock

What is a games convention?

Games conventions are held annually in many locations across the U.S. and around the world, as a means for enthusiasts of the gaming hobby to meet, share ideas, and find new people to play with or against. Conventions normally offer a wide selection of gaming events for their attendees to take part in, including tournaments in various games. The largest conventions (such as Origins and Gen Con) also serve as trade shows for the games industry.

What is the "gaming hobby?"

Gaming hobbyists are a diverse group, including people of all ages and from all walks of life. What they have in common is an enjoyment of one or more of the following types of games:

• Roleplaying Games, in which players create fictional characters inhabiting a setting determined by the game's referee or gamemaster, and play out their characters' adventures in what amounts to collaborative storytelling. Dungeons & Dragons is the example most likely to be familiar (at least in name) to non-players, but dozens of other roleplaying games exist, covering as many genres as the fiction section of a good bookstore.
• Miniatures Games, in which participants play out battles using armies of intricately-painted metal and plastic figures, often on very large tables covered with elaborate miniature terrain and scenery. Examples include fantasy and science fiction based games such as Warhammer and CAV as well as games based on the armies and battles of history.
• Collectible Card Games are the most recent major category to emerge, having been born with the incredibly successful Magic: The Gathering in 1993. These are games in which each player assembles the most competitive deck they can from cards which are purchased in randomly-assorted packs much in the manner of sports cards or other collectible cards. Other popular CCGs include Legend of the Five Rings, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon.
• Boardgames run the gamut from familiar boxed strategy games like Risk and Axis & Allies to the very popular English-language versions of foreign games like Settlers of Catan and its sequels. This category also includes strategic and tactical simulation games based on both historical and fictional conflicts.